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(RENEE C. BYER/Associated Press)

December 12, 2012

Seattle Post-Intelligencer filesCars were smashed by falling bricks in Seattle during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. The magnitude 6.8 quake temporarily shut down Seattle-Tacoma International A irport, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, cracked the dome atop the state Capitol in Olympia and briefly trapped about 30 people atop a swaying Space Needle. When the Cascadia fault slips, it has the potential to cause far more damage, and a magnitude 9.0 or higher earthquake -- more than 100 times as powerful as a 6.8.